‘The Economist Magazine’s EIU Vindicates Atiku’

The Atiku Presidential Campaign Organisation says its attention has been drawn to what it calls “the desperation of the Buhari government and the All Progressives Congress in denouncing the projections of The Economist Magazine that exposed the incumbent Nigerian government for the failure that it is.”

In a statement, the organisation said, “We find it amusing that an All Progressives Congress and a Buhari campaign that once celebrated The Economist Magazine’s Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) in 2015 when they declared that Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress were projected to win the 2015 elections, have today denounced the same Economist Intelligence Unit of The Economist magazine for projecting victory for the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2015 elections.

“This is symptomatic of the double standards of the Buhari regime and its APC vehicle. Nigerians are used to them treating suspected corruption by opposition members as proven cases while waving away confirmed cases of corruption, even reaching all the way to the Presidential Villa, with a wave of the hand.

“And now, they have extended their duplicity to The Economist Magazine which is the world’s premier economics focused publication.

“How can the APC and the Buhari administration tell Nigerians to ‘disregard these expert analysis and prophesied for what they are and dismiss them accordingly’?

Do they want Nigerians to disregard the fact that under the woefully clueless Buhari administration, Nigeria overtook India as the world headquarters for extreme poverty, even though India has eight times our population?

“Do they want Nigerians to disregard the fact that a parastatal under the Buhari government, the National Bureau of Statistics, published last December that 7.9 million Nigerians lost their jobs in the 21 months period under review?

“Do they want Nigerians to disregard the fact that Transparency International has declared that Nigeria is more corrupt today than it was under the PDP and has moved 12 places backward in the Corruption Perception Index, from 136 in 2014 to 148 this year?

“Do they want Nigerians to disregard the fact that the Global Terrorism Index revealed that Nigeria is more terrorised and insecure today than she was in 2014 going from fourth most terrorised nation to being the third most terrorised nation in the latest rankings?

“Do they want Nigerians to disregard the fact that the value of the Naira has collapsed, going from ₦199 to $1 in 2015 under the PDP to ₦365 to $1 today and being named by Bloomberg as the fourth worst performing currency in the world under Buhari?

“Even if the Buhari administration claims that The Economist made a mistake, did HSBC, the world’s largest bank, make a mistake in adjudging the continuation of the Buhari government beyond 2019 as an economic disaster for Nigeria in the making? That these two economic giants independently arrived at the same conclusion is damning.

“The truth is that Nigerians do not even need The Economist Magazine’s Economist Intelligence Unit to tell them that this administration has failed and that it will be voted out.

“Nigerians who now pay twice the amount that they paid for fuel under the PDP even as the government pays double the subsidy that the last PDP administration paid, know that they have to vote out this disaster of a government before it brings the nation down.

“Nigerians are not prepared to surrender their ancestral lands to be used as cattle colonies just because they want to avoid death.

“The electorate are well versed with these matters and desire a new leadership, the type of leadership that Waziri Atiku Abubakar offers, which will help get Nigeria Working Again.

“The Economist magazine mentioned the economy and jobs as the main challenges with Nigeria in 2018. Of all the aspirants jostling for the Presidency, none of them, including President Buhari, has the job creation record of Waziri Atiku Abubakar, who has created 50,000 direct jobs and 250,000 indirect jobs in his private capacity as one of Nigeria’s most successful businessmen.

“Nobody is better placed than Atiku Abubakar to correct the almost irreparable damage done to Nigeria’s economy by the floundering Buhari administration and its sinking party, the APC.”